Eur. Phys. J. D 20, 531-542 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2002-00150-y

Exploration of the full conformational space of N-acetyl-L-glutamate-N-methylamide^*

An ab initio and DFT study

¹ Departamento de Química, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Chacabuco 915, 5700 San Luis, Argentina
² Area de Química Física, Departamento de Química, U.N.N.E., Av. Libertad 5460, 3400 Corrientes, Argentina
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., Canada M5S 3H6

Corresponding author: ^a mzamora@unsl.edu.ar

Received: 9 January 2002
Published online: 13 September 2002

Abstract

A conformational and electronic study on N-acetyl-L-glutamate-N-methylamide was carried out. Theoretical computational analysis revealed 21 different conformations at the RB3LYP/6-31G(d) level of theory. Ab initio calculations at two levels of theory (RHF/3-21G and RHF/6-31G(d)) were also performed. All side-chain conformations were explored for this compound. N-acetyl-L-glutamate-N-methylamide displayed a different conformational behaviour in comparison with other amino acids possessing shorter side-chains. These results can be attributed, at least in part, to the side-chain-backbone interactions, which are stabilizing the low-energy conformations in this molecule.